Can you say heaven? I can….Homemade beet chips. They are divine. I have tried a few store bought beet chips, and although tasty, after eating the homemade kind I am afraid I cannot go back since the homemade ones are fresh and not laden with extra salts and other bad stuff.

I don’t know about you all but it has been a week+ since I have been back to work after Christmas and the New Year and I am stiiiiiiiiiiiiiill exhausted. Am I the only one? Do I need to detox from Joly old St. Nick? No, I know what is, I need to detox from….highly processed Christmas cookies, booze, refined grains, and the list goes on. I did not treat my body well and now I am paying the price. Oh well, instead of beating myself up for eating those 7 Christmas cookies in one sitting (don’t judge), I started the new year right and with a bang! I have been cooking up a frenzy of fun new healthy, Paleo recipes for the family and I am loving how I much energy I am having again. Be sure to keep looking back to the blog for new recipes in the next week or so.

Anyway, back to the beet chips. They are amazing. I wish I could make more and more and more. My obsession with beets started when one of my old time friends from Boston College introduced me to them a few years back. Beets are delicious and like brussel sprouts need a better PR campaign. I was always turned off by beets because I thought all beets came from a can and I also thought if you boiled them, you would have permanent stained pink cutting boards, hands, etc. Well thanks to Breanne, she taught me a world with roasted beets is a world worth living. I usually roast a few beets on Sunday and store them in my fridge to throw beets in my salad for lunch, use them in a soup and NOW I can use them to make beet chips. Hooray for me!

My only “beef” with this recipe was I wish it were easier to make a bigger batch at a time since you are limited to your available oven space. For instance, I was only able to cook two batches at a time (1 cookie sheet per rack, 2 racks total) and each batch takes 40 minutes (20 minutes on each side) to cook. By the time the second batch was in the oven I was almost done chowing down on the first batch. No joke. But don’t let this deter you from trying it. I always tell you how it is, no sugar coating from this girl. Either way, I still think it was worth the work and I will be making these chips all the time now because these beet chips were amazing and 100x better than those over priced Terra chips you find in the store. The only other thing I would also like to mention is what happened when I stored them. Once they came out of the oven, they were warm and crispy and oh so delicious. We devoured most of them that night (again, don’t judge) but there was some that did make it to the following day. I stored them overnight in a Tupperware container and when I took them out the next day, the chips were soft and mushy. After thinking long and hard, I decided to place them back on the cookie sheet again under the broiler for 4-5 minutes and they became crispy again. Viola! Again it was worth every minute. After stuffing my face, yet again with the rest of the beet chips, I could not help but think how does anyone go back to eating boring old potato chips when they could have these amazing homemade oven roasted Paleo beet chips? And plus beets are low in saturated fat and cholesterol unlike boring old potatoes. Beets are also a good source of Vitamin C, Iron and Magnesium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Folate, Potassium and Manganese. It is a win win for your taste buds and your waste line.

The best part about eating beets? Your urine turns red! TMI, I know, but I just wanted you to know so you don’t go crazy when you see it and think bad things are happening in your bladder. This happened to me at Julian’s school. I forgot to tell his teacher and when he went pee the next day and the teacher saw his urine was was red, she freaked and called me right away. Boy did I have a tough time explaining that; no it was not blood, just healthy red urine stained by all the beets he ate the night prior. This could also be a good science experiment with the kids. Show them that eating healthy food can make your body do cool things. If they like beets, try asparagus too!

Homemade Oven Roasted Beet Chips are amazing and you will never buy another store bought chip again!

Author: Our Full Plate

Recipe type: Snack

Cuisine: Paleo

Serves: 4

Ingredients

6 small- medium fresh beets, keep raw and peel skin off (I used red and golden beets. If you can't find both varieties use one; it doesn't matter because they all are delicious)

4 teaspoons of olive oil

salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Take your fresh beets and peel them. If you are working with red beets you should wear plastic gloves to eliminate staining as well as using a dark cutting board.

Once beets are peeled, it is time to slice your beets. I used my mandolin cutter and it was so so easy. If you don't have one you can use your knife but try to make sure you cut evenly and as thinly as possible so they not only resemble chips but also cook quickly in the oven. For the mandolin cutter, I used the ⅛ setting and they were the perfect thickness.

Once beets are sliced, put them in a bowl and pour about 2 - 4 teaspoons of olive oil. Use enough to give a generous coat on all the beets.

Place oiled beets on the cookie sheet evenly. Again fit as many as you can. I fit about 25 on each cookie sheet. It took me three cookie sheets (60-75 total) to cook all 6 of my small/ medium sized beets. Once the first batch is laid out and ready to go in the oven add a generous amount of salt to all.

Place cookie sheets on oven racks that are in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and cook for 20 minutes. At the 20 minute mark, turn over the beets and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Mine needed all 40 minutes, but if yours are really small and thin (like my red ones) then take them out at the second 15-18 minutes. I didn't mind the crispy red ones so it is up to you.

Transfer to a wire rack and chips will crisp up as they cool.

Prepare to devour each and every one of these chips. The best part is you don't have to feel guilty with less than 30 calories and 1.5 grams of fat for about 10-15 chips.

3.1.09

Homemade oven roasted beet chips ingredients

Close up of the red and golden beets

Using kitchen gloves and my oldest cutting board to peel the red beets to avoid staining

Using the mandolin cutter to thinly slice the beets

Homemade oven roasted beet chips are ready to be seasoned and roasted

Pour 2-4 teaspoons of olive oil and evenly coat all beet slices

Homemade oven roasted beet chips are ready to go in the oven

40 minutes of roasting the Homemade oven roasted beet chips

Homemade oven roasted beet chips were so good it was hard to not devour them immediately

One more for good measures, homemade oven roasted beet chips

Have any of you been brave enough to roast any other vegetable? I bought carrot chips once and they weren’t all that. Maybe I should just stick to making my own sweet potato and beet chips. So what do you think? Are you brave enough to try it? Big risks, gets big results.